NTPC Badarpur power plant site to become eco park

New Delhi: Citizens of the national capital will be able to enjoy wildlife safari from some time in 2021 as the government gets down to convert the site of the NTPC’s defunct Badarpur power plant into an eco park. The makeover will cost the exchequer ₹343 crore.

Minister of state (independent charge) in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said on Thursday the 884-acre forest in the south west part of the city will be provided with unique herbivore and carnivore safari.

The 705-megawatt (MW) Badarpur plant, which began operations in 1973, came in NTPC’s fold in 2003, but as pollution concerns gripped the capital in the last decade, it was forced to shut down one unit after another.

The state-owned power generator shut the last two units — fourth and fifth — of 210 MW each in October last year under a Supreme Court order over environmental worries from the burning of the coal. The first three units of the plant were of 95 MW each.